Lets try that again...

J.D. Gluckstern

Prof. Engel

Political Journalism and Activism

 

Identity, The Media, and the Campaign

 

           

            With every passing experience, memory, and moment of our lives, we shape the way we understand ourselves. The same can be said of he we shape our understanding of the identity of another. Every encounter, experience, and interaction shared with another person helps us crystallize a sense of who that person is. But what happens when there is a medium that serves to provide us these interactions? What happens when the moments we have with this other individual are selectively chosen? This is what is happening with the presidential campaign. We, as individuals, are encouraged to use mass media to help us identify with these potential candidates and understand who they are as people.  The real question is what is lost and what is gained by this system?

            When we experience new and different experiences, we gauge the way we react and the ways in which our consciences are pulled one way or another. Experiences that induce drastic change are often some of the most clarifying because it is in the face of uncertainty that we draw from our inner-most places. This type of introspection often leads to a better understanding of our own identity. This challenge to our internal system is always an effective way of helping us figure out who we really are. The way in which we understand those around us is similar. We use our experiences and interactions with the other to gauge their reactions to situations and to ourselves. Challenging situations we share with others really illuminate the character of that individual. The interesting thing about getting to know an other is that we may never need to meet that individual face to face, or even be within 3,000 miles, or even live in the same century to feel as though we understand who they were. We use sources of information to provide us with a comprehensive look at who they truly were. These are helpful but hardly do justice to individuals. Whereas we define ourselves through thousands of moments and experiences, these sources often boil individuals down to a singular concept that we can use to stand in for their individuality.

            A perfect example might be Rosa Parks, whose media-given identity is that of a tired lady who was just too tired to give her seat to a white man. This is simply untrue. Parks was a multi-faceted and ambitious activist. These are things we don’t hear because the media has decided what is important for us to understand about Parks. Her identity has been stripped of nuance and simplified. The individual has disappeared behind the concept of the individual.

             Today, this disappearance of the individual is of utmost importance. We are in the midst of one of the most heated democratic candidate campaigns in recent history where the identity of the individuals is of glaring significance. For the first time in history we will have either a black man or a woman as a presidential candidate. To say that this is an important moment in our country’s history is hardly an overstatement. The problem we are having is that these identifying features, Obama’s darker skin and Hillary’s femininity are being used as stand-ins to their individuality. It is almost as if racial equality is running against gender equality. The real problem as I see it is that we, the voters, are attempting to choose someone that we see fit to represent us in their policies. I am supposed to vote for someone who most closely matches my convictions and beliefs about our country. Unfortunately, we are given very few pieces of them as an individual to work from. The picture I see of myself is a circle: thousands of tiny experiences making up the whole. We are offered the candidates as squares. A few defining features that are supposed to make them a whole. How am I supposed to fit my circle into a square? There are so many pieces missing that I am wary to identify with anyone.

            The media has to understand that its actions, even ones as small as (yet potentially as significant as) video editing, have profound impacts on the way we understand these individuals. The video of Hillary crying, or the picture of Obama in what has been said to be Muslim dress: these are pieces that mass media is giving us among very few others that are supposed to help crystallize who these people are. This does not work.  They have to be careful in what they choose and yet, be less censored in what they offer us. We need to get past the surface identification of a woman versus a black man. This is a person versus another person, and right now, it is increasingly difficult to see that as true.